99 best logos for creative inspiration

The best logos are iconic; they’re clever, creative, beautiful, witty and memorable. To design a creative logo for your company, you want to spend some time thinking and researching. Look at the latest logo design trends. Make sure you have a deep understanding of your brand. And, of course, get inspired!

To help you with that last step, we dove deep into our design database and pulled a list of the 1,000 most-liked logos (based on user voting) of all time. From there, we used a little bit of science and a little bit of art to narrow it down to the 99 best logos, created by our top designers. And, of course, we grouped them by logo type, to help make your inspiration binge a little more manageable.

The best pictorial logos create meaning by associating an easily-identifiable image with your business.

Sometimes these images have built in cultural meaning—like a tree standing for growth, or a fox implying wits—and sometimes they become symbols in their own right—like the iconic Apple apple or Twitter bird.

Pictorial logos have the ability to be cute and playful, modern and sleek, or classic and elegant. Many of these logos have creative visual puns, or use design style to create layered meaning in their designs.

Amazing abstract logos
—

Abstract marks are a specific subset of pictorial logos. Instead of using easily-identifiable, representational imagery, they use more subtle, geometric shapes to create an iconic image for a brand. Sometimes these images hint at something representational—like the Alo logo below alludes to a bird—but other times they create completely unique images that come to represent a brand (think Pepsi’s circle, or the Nike swoosh).

Going with a creative, abstract logo is a bold move, as you will be forging a path all your own. But it will also be truly unique, and uniquely you.

Emblematic emblems
—

An emblem is a seal, badge, or crest, and creates a classical or vintage feel. They can be intricate or simple, but either way their shape is something customers will immediately associate with tradition, which goes a long way in creating trust. Here are our best logo emblems:

The most creative mascots
—

Beautiful wordmarks & lettermarks
—

Wordmark and lettermark logos are all about detail. Done poorly, they are simply fonts. But done well, they are nuanced and sleek, and create meaning through typography. These types of logos have a reputation for being more traditional, but they can be creative, fun, quirky and modern. And many of the best logos are surprisingly clever, creating shapes and images in their letters. Which, of course, adds meaning and makes them memorable.

Ready to get the perfect creative logo for you business?

A logo design contest can get you dozens of ideas from professional designers around the world.

The author

Kelly is the senior manager of content strategy at 99designs. Previously, Kelly has been a web designer, filmmaker and educator. In addition to researching, writing and editing awesome articles on design, Kelly likes cuddling cats and over-explaining figure skating to people. You can reach her on Twitter @KelMo.